Conventional networks typically include interconnected network elements or nodes in various configurations. Example network elements may include routers, switches, access devices, base stations, optical switches, optical add/drop multiplexers, dense wave division multiplexers (DWDM), and the like. Each network element includes a combination of hardware, software, and firmware and typically a physical implementation includes a plurality of modules, cards, blades, etc. interconnected via an interface such as a backplane, mid-plane, etc. Effectively, each network element is a complex, real time, embedded software system. With respect to development and testing of software related to a particular network element, hardware that the software is supposed to run on is usually not available due to expense, limited availability of the hardware, or simply that the hardware has not been designed and prototyped yet. Concurrent software development with hardware development may provide reduced development time and effort. Conventionally, there does not exist a fully encompassing simulation of a fiber network that allows the developers to fully test a complex, real time, embedded software system down to the driver level. Further, a “simulated” traffic generating test set to test the simulated data plane is a key missing component preventing conventional simulators from testing the full system. Thus there is a need for systems and methods providing a simulation environment for the development and testing of complex, real time, embedded software systems such as network elements in a communication network.